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In response to the procession today (July 1), a Government spokesman said that the SAR Government fully respected peopleˇ¦s rights to take part in procession and their freedom of expression.
ˇ§The Chief Executive has undertaken to completely resolve the issue of universal suffrage within his term of office. The SAR Government will continue to adopt a pragmatic, proactive and conciliatory approach in promoting democratic development,ˇ¨ the spokesman said.
He noted that the Government would soon publish a green paper on constitutional development. This will be followed by a three-month public consultation to consult the public on the possible models, roadmap and timetable for electing the CE and for forming the Legislative Council by universal suffrage. After consolidating the public views, the SAR Government will submit a report to the Central Authorities, which will reflect any mainstream views formed during the public consultation and other views expressed.
ˇ§We hope that different political parties, organisations and individuals would consider various proposals with an open mind, so that consensus could be reached for the early implementation of universal suffrage,ˇ¨ he added.
Noting that the procession has raised other different demands, the spokesman said, ˇ§The Chief Executive has already stated that the new term of the SAR Government would be a ˇĄpeople-basedˇ¦ government. He and all the Principal Officials will reach out to the community and enhance communications with the general public so that they could embrace public sentiment and respond more effectively to the needs of our people.ˇ¨
Ends/Sunday, July 1, 2007
Issued at HKT 18:47
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